SIS II 2019 Statistics - eu-LISA II... · 2020. 3. 19. · on searches and hits reported by Member States connected to SIS II, on accesses for alert management and number of alerts

SIS II – 2019 annual statistics 1

SIS II – 2019 Statistics

March 2020

Protection level: PUBLIC


This report has been produced pursuant to Article 50(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1987/2006 and Article 66(3) of

Council Decision 2007/533/JHA with the purpose of publishing statistics on SIS II.

This report is public. Reproduction is authorised, except for commercial purposes, provided that the source is

acknowledged.

eulisa.europa.eu

ISBN 978-92-95217-68-3

ISSN 2467-0766

doi:10.2857/78730

Catalogue number: EL-AH-20-001-EN-N

© European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom,

Security and Justice (eu-LISA), 2020

http://eulisa.europa.eu/


Contents Setting the scene: SIS II in operations .............................................................................................................. 4

Introduction and methodology ........................................................................................................................ 5

1. Accesses to SIS II ...................................................................................................................................... 6

2. Number of alerts in SIS II .......................................................................................................................... 8

2.1 Alerts on persons ............................................................................................................................. 10

3. Number of hits ....................................................................................................................................... 12

4. Trend: searches and hits......................................................................................................................... 13

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 14


Setting the scene: SIS II in operations

Schengen cooperation is one of the major and most tangible achievements of European integration. The

Schengen Area, consisting of 22 EU Member States and 4 Schengen Associated Countries, is the largest area

without internal borders in the world, which allows approximately 400 million citizens as well as travellers from

third-countries to move freely. Free movement of this scale can only be ensured in conjunction with appropriate

and effective measures to ensure internal security within the Schengen Area.

In 1995, the Schengen Information System was set up as one such compensatory measures to enable the lifting

of internal borders. The system lies at the very heart of Schengen, and underpins the free movement of people

within the area without internal border controls. In 2020, after 25 years in operations, SIS II represents a key

Schengen`s infrastructure, being the largest and most widely used IT system for public security in Europe.

SIS II plays a crucial role in facilitating the free movement of people within the Schengen Area and ensuring a

high level of security by supporting border controls at the external borders as well as law enforcement and

judicial cooperation throughout Europe. The system enables competent authorities to enter and consult data

on wanted persons, persons who may not have the right to enter or stay in the EU, missing persons – in

particular, children – as well as objects that may have been stolen, misappropriated or lost.

At the end of 2019, 26 EU Member States and 4 Associated Countries as well as Europol and Eurojust, were

using SIS II1. Competent authorities in the Member States such as police, border guards and customs officers

are increasingly using SIS II, as highlighted by the operational data and trends presented in this document. Hits,

processed by the SIRENE Bureaux which are used to measure the usage and relevance of the system, have more

than doubled in number between 2014 and 2019, reaching on average 777 hits per day in 2019. In operational

terms, this means that SIS II contributed to solving on average 777 competent authorities` cases per day in the

European countries that use the system.

In the coming years, developments are planned for SIS II, which will most likely further affect its usage. The

system will be reinforced through updated rules which will address gaps and introduce several essential

changes to the types of alert entered. In particular, the entry into operations of the new SIS legal basis (SIS

recast) will introduce a biometric matching capability by enforcing on all Member States an obligation to

implement the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). This new requirement will enable end users

to search SIS and identify persons in the system on the basis of fingerprint data. The Agency is already working

towards the full implementation of the SIS recast. In addition to AFIS in all Member States, this development

will introduce technical and operational improvements to further strengthen the operational effectiveness and

efficiency of the system (for example introducing the possibility of using facial images for identification

purposes during border control procedures and the inclusion of a DNA profile to facilitate the identification of

missing persons, in specific cases). It will include, inter alia, the implementation of new functionalities, new

categories of data, provide access to new users such as Frontex and access for Europol and Eurojust to all

categories of data in the system.

Furthermore, the implementation of interoperability2 and the integration of Ireland and Cyprus as new SIS

users, will further increase the system`s usage.

1 Under the term "Member States" the current document refers to the Member States of the EU and Associated Countries, which were bound under Union law by the legislative instruments governing SIS II in 2019, if not further explained. Member States of the EU connected to SIS II on 31 December 2019 were: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Associated Countries connected to SIS II are: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. 2 Regulation (EU) 2019/818 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration and amending Regulations (EU) 2018/1726, (EU) 2018/1862 and (EU) 2019/816, and Regulation (EU) 2019/817 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of borders and visa and amending Regulations (EC) No 767/2008, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240, (EU) 2018/1726 and (EU) 2018/1861 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Decisions 2004/512/EC and 2008/633/JHA. OJ L 135, 22.5.2019.


Scope and methodology Statistical data on SIS II, including:

the number of records per category of alert,

the number of hits per category of alert, and

how many times SIS II was accessed in total and by each Member State,

is made publicly available on an annual basis since 2014, in accordance with Article 50(3) of SIS II Regulation3

and Article 66(3) of SIS II Decision4 (here after referred to as the “SIS II Regulation” and “SIS II Decision”).

This document provides statistics for the period from 01 January to 31 December 2019. The document is

prepared by eu-LISA by compiling data

on searches and hits reported by Member States connected to SIS II,

on accesses for alert management and number of alerts generated by the SIS Central System.

Europol5 and Eurojust6 have the right, within their respective mandates, to access and search data directly in

SIS II and used the system in 2019. However, the statistics on accesses to SIS II by these EU Agencies are not in

the scope of this document, as the document only covers accesses by Member States.

On 28 December 2018, new SIS Regulations entered into force. Said regulations (Regulation (EU) 2018/1860,

Regulation (EU) 2018/1861 and Regulation (EU) 2018/1862) foresee different reporting obligations. However,

the new obligations will only be reflected in statistical reports once the Regulations become fully applicable at

the end of the implementation period 2019-2021.

Data for previous years, and revised versions thereof, are available on the eu-LISA website7.

3 Regulation (EC) No 1987/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment, operation and use of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), OJ L 381, 28.12.2006. 4 Council Decision 2007/533/JHA on the establishment, operation and use of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), OJ L 205, 7.8.2007. 5 Article 41 SIS II Decision. 6 Article 42 SIS II Decision. 7 https://www.eulisa.europa.eu/our-publications/reports


1. Accesses to SIS II

Access to SIS II is defined as any search (query) made against the Central System or a national copy of SIS II8,

regardless of whether a hit is achieved or not; as well as any transaction for alert management (create, update,

delete or change of expiry date) performed. Every access is counted, even if an access resulted in an error and

an error message was returned from the system.

In 2019, SIS II was accessed 6,666,377,199 times in total by all Member States9. Compared to 2018, the

annual number of accesses to SIS II increased by 8%. Breakdown per Member State is provided in table 1.

Table 1: Breakdown of accesses per Member States in 2019

Source: eu-LISA.

Manually processed searches are defined as searches (queries) involving human intervention, e.g. searches by

staff using radios, telephones, computer terminals, document scanners and other forms of “traditional search”

where a user makes the decision to carry out a search. On the other hand, automatically processed searches

happen when there is no human intervention, e.g. searches carried out by automatic number plate recognition

systems (ANPR) or other forms of automated bulk searches.

8 Member States without a national copy, and therefore searching only the Central System are Denmark, Finland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Slovenia. In addition, in 2019 also Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland partially used the Central System for alphanumeric searches. 9 Estonia, Germany, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland provided only the total of searches (without breakdown of manual and automated). The sum of the total manual searches and the total of the automated searches are the sum of breakdown provided by Member States (if provided).

Member

State

Manual

searches

Automated

searches

Total

searches Create Update Delete

Change

expiry date

Accesses alert

management

Total

Accesses

AT 213,515,392 227,619 213,743,011 140,149 60,179 50,494 8,300 259,122 214,002,133

BE 34,303,374 47,929,495 82,232,869 622,135 158,164 78,628 118,193 977,120 83,209,989

BG 3,038,301 109,789,677 112,827,978 392,031 4,551 167,938 423 564,943 113,392,921

HR 365,398,269 365,398,269 153,835 802 27,412 7 182,056 365,580,325

CZ 95,841,680 102,982,696 198,824,376 484,403 129,530 111,355 41,647 766,935 199,591,311

DK 58,637,762 58,637,762 117,487 2,781 66,630 1,452 188,350 58,826,112

EE 58,266,126 55,061 635 1,005 1,405 58,106 58,324,232

FI 104,387,478 9,396,914 113,784,392 39,635 2,625 8,008 392 50,660 113,835,052

FR 360,795,033 640,741,386 1,001,536,419 5,967,907 732,644 1,704,587 476,169 8,881,307 1,010,417,726

DE 555,830,204 1,877,837 1,109,185 657,388 748,981 4,393,391 560,223,595

EL 90,137,656 90,137,656 329,745 33,658 33,914 16,086 413,403 90,551,059

HU 157,484,861 157,484,861 234,290 21,672 56,977 57,010 369,949 157,854,810

IS 4,455,479 2,220,500 6,675,979 2,303 580 23 20 2,926 6,678,905

IT 203,066,862 303,811,745 506,878,607 3,193,711 43,897 383,167 51,471 3,672,246 510,550,853

LV 48,648,263 48,648,263 34,700 2,029 4,163 87 40,979 48,689,242

LI 530,728 270,495 801,223 981 383 158 45 1,567 802,790

LT 58,177,291 58,177,291 196,630 4,429 3,889 122 205,070 58,382,361

LU 4,125,397 15,259,548 19,384,945 5,327 1,333 2,369 919 9,948 19,394,893

MT 15,812,700 23,992,692 39,805,392 15,789 3,869 3,374 230 23,262 39,828,654

NL 163,247,597 28,677,106 191,924,703 488,126 19,525 16,888 14,888 539,427 192,464,130

NO 90,889,006 90,889,006 89,976 10,406 20,461 6,456 127,299 91,016,305

PL 493,189,876 493,189,876 617,104 86,256 100,054 12,716 816,130 494,006,006

PT 129,883,956 108,962 1,887 29,078 2,424 142,351 130,026,307

RO 332,316,718 332,316,718 276,177 53,487 20,709 3,521 353,894 332,670,612

SK 3,543,254 5,530,604 9,073,858 186,549 52,978 47,513 10,142 297,182 9,371,040

SI 112,342,422 112,342,422 27,153 5,547 5,044 1,477 39,221 112,381,643

ES 297,560,596 778,368,746 1,072,487 1,141,345 181,152 30,670 2,425,654 780,794,400

SE 56,498,367 191,385 27,469 14,497 6,748 240,099 56,738,466

CH 184,874,024 117,955 16,447 58,525 6,982 199,909 185,073,933

UK 91,108,196 477,989,313 569,097,509 2,106,286 62,678 420,413 10,508 2,599,885 571,697,394

Total 3,102,773,863 2,066,395,422 6,637,534,808 19,146,116 3,790,971 4,275,813 1,629,491 28,842,391 6,666,377,199


In 2019, similar to the past few years, France was the heaviest SIS II user with over 15% of the total accesses,

reporting over one billion searches performed. The second most prominent user was Spain with almost 12% of

the total accesses, reporting almost 780 million searches. The third main user was the UK reporting almost 9%

of the total accesses, with almost 570 million searches. The UK was closely followed by Germany reporting

8.5% of the total accesses, with over 555 million searches performed. A breakdown per Member State is

reflected in Graph 1.

Graph 1: Breakdown of accesses per Member States in 2019

Source: eu-LISA.


2. Number of alerts in SIS II

Alerts in SIS II can relate to persons in accordance with provisions in Articles 26, 32, 34, 36 of the SIS II Decision

and Article 24 of the SIS II Regulation10; and to objects in accordance with provisions in Articles 36 and 38 of the

SIS II Decision11. On 31 December 2019 there were a total of 91,069,599 alerts in SIS II. Table 2 provides the

breakdown per Member State for the different categories of alerts.

Table 2: Breakdown of alerts per Member States on 31 December 2019

Source: eu-LISA.

Alerts on Persons represent 1.08% of the total amount of alerts stored in the SIS II database. The largest share

of alerts were in the Issued document12 category, accounting for 75.5% of the total volume with over 68 million

alerts, followed by Security13 with 7.4% of the total. A breakdown of the category of alerts is reflected in Graph

2.

10 Each article has a different purpose, alerts on persons can be issued for the purposes of identifying the following people: persons subject to arrest for surrender or extradition pursuant to Article 26 of the SIS II Decision; third country nationals to be refused entry into or stay within the Schengen area pursuant to Article 24 of the SIS II Regulation; missing persons (adults and minors) pursuant to Article 32 of the SIS II Decision; persons to assist with a judicial procedure pursuant to Article 34 of the SIS II Decision; persons for discreet or specific checks pursuant to Article 36 of the SIS II Decision. 11 Alerts on objects – vehicles, boats, aircrafts and containers - as per article 36 SIS II Decision are entered into SIS II for discreet or specific checks. Alerts on objects – vehicles, boats, aircrafts, trailers, caravans, industrial equipment, outboard engines, containers, firearms, blank documents, issued identity paper, vehicle registration documents, banknotes, securities - are entered into SIS II as they are sought for the purposes of seizure or use as evidence in criminal proceedings. 12 Issued identity papers such as passports, identity cards, driving licenses, residence permits and travel documents, which have been stolen, misappropriated, lost or invalidated. 13 Securities and means of payment such as cheques, credit cards, bonds, stocks and shares which have been stolen, misappropriated, lost or invalidated.

Member

State

Total

per MSPerson Vehicle Aircraft Banknote

Blank

documentBoat

Boat

engineContainer Firearm

Industrial

equip.

Issued

document

Licence

plateSecurity

Vehicle

regis. doc.

AT 470,644 22,470 21,672 0 61 619 32 216 1 4,512 1,844 373,702 42,429 2,128 958

BE 4,143,055 15,383 38,559 1 3,054 11,770 67 237 202 38,839 16,201 3,394,150 314,231 3,190 307,171

BG 1,500,402 2,564 31,984 0 0 0 7 9 0 331 354 1,056,985 167,224 229 240,715

HR 1,123,163 4,388 35,346 6 6,760 12,483 833 1,628 8 71,086 4,014 607,729 312,787 59 66,036

CZ 3,023,808 18,588 39,407 2 5 4,984 11 48 0 15,564 7,393 1,493,818 148,740 430 1,294,818

DK 802,428 5,710 26,153 6 6 1,667 914 4,584 1 4,816 5,328 735,259 17,984 0 0

EE 335,115 1,487 1,375 0 0 0 19 4 0 119 1 332,097 13 0 0

FI 256,227 3,187 5,302 0 0 14 97 727 0 7,306 41 236,150 3,361 2 40

FR 15,385,018 246,092 548,799 46 23,926 10,292 2,073 3,435 236 54,365 24,092 11,366,913 77,947 2,506,593 520,209

DE 11,643,905 95,074 307,547 269 210,608 279,835 1,676 11,569 132 190,526 109,965 8,338,670 994,274 727,643 376,117

EL 1,885,531 37,598 270,025 0 28,334 141,422 847 2,317 3 19,641 168 1,049,574 321,499 896 13,207

HU 805,599 10,762 8,125 0 75 437 17 39 0 443 63 729,887 30,820 326 24,605

IS 20,287 211 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 20,072 1 0 0

IT 21,872,415 227,888 1,009,383 0 6,762 587,007 812 127 1 75,994 6,018 14,245,641 1,115,497 3,477,552 1,119,733

LV 153,978 1,273 3,515 0 0 0 7 15 0 12 86 147,018 1,888 2 162

LI 7,970 232 23 0 0 1 0 0 0 39 69 7,340 213 47 6

LT 1,221,997 2,268 6,629 0 19 35 63 25 2 722 40 880,926 141,371 3 189,894

LU 29,551 1,821 1,101 0 43 1,295 5 1 0 155 182 24,127 198 257 366

MT 136,116 1,962 1,347 0 14 37 65 78 0 251 0 130,612 130 3 1,617

NL 4,499,953 34,228 84,988 0 40 803 431 925 10 2,812 1,251 4,374,334 125 2 4

NO 652,607 19,045 10,261 0 96 519 777 3,166 1 3,179 186 555,042 59,598 0 737

PL 3,289,870 36,591 117,280 1 1,106 71 614 558 73 21,366 3,763 2,732,293 62,490 414 313,250

PT 411,864 17,428 59,146 0 2 2,380 38 176 1 7,840 27 318,266 18 271 6,271

RO 1,437,132 14,800 7,744 0 16 37 0 1 0 564 0 1,251,116 0 0 162,854

SK 1,573,845 7,004 31,555 0 201 321 18 19 15 5,244 33 1,422,847 106,298 0 290

SI 278,505 2,390 9,048 0 409 1,633 55 224 2 872 8 222,569 39,105 0 2,190

ES 7,830,666 72,202 683,423 10 880 16,588 1,100 125 17 65,933 13,683 6,969,106 2,939 261 4,399

SE 459,672 11,867 38,359 0 369 1,158 1,678 6,091 26 27,512 15,501 356,540 571 0 0

CH 1,209,284 31,931 21,080 0 1,749 107 173 1,162 0 6,989 14,254 1,128,335 0 3,483 21

UK 4,608,992 36,680 259,824 9 0 0 508 1,259 190 3,552 18,936 4,288,034 0 0 0

Total 91,069,599 983,124 3,679,000 350 284,535 1,075,515 12,937 38,765 921 630,587 243,501 68,789,152 3,961,751 6,723,791 4,645,670


Graph 2: Breakdown of alerts per category stored in SIS II on 31 December 2019

Source: eu-LISA.

At the end of 2019, similar to 2018, Italy was the Member State owning the majority of alerts with 24% of the

total volume of alerts, including 23% of the total alerts on persons. France was the second biggest owner with

16.9% of the alerts (including 25% of the alerts on persons), followed by Germany owning 12.8% of the total

alerts (including 9.7% of the alerts on persons). A breakdown of the data per Member State is reflected in Graph

3.

Graph 3: Breakdown of alerts per Member State stored in SIS II on 31 December 2019

Source: eu-LISA.


Compared to 2018, the total number of alerts present in the database by the end of the year increased by 11%.

The net annual increase amounted to over 8.8 million additional alerts.

The majority of Member States increased their share of alerts in 2019 compared to 2018 (see Graph 4). The

most significant increase with over 3.7 million additional alerts was registered by France; followed by the UK

with over 1.6 million additional alerts.

On the other hand, Estonia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Switzerland decreased their number

of alerts stored in 2019 compared to the previous year.

Graph 4: Delta of alerts per Member State (2019-2018)

Source: eu-LISA.

2.1 Alerts on persons

Alerts on persons can be issued for the purpose of identifying the following individuals:

Persons subject to arrest for surrender or extradition pursuant to Article 26 of the SIS II Decision;

Third country nationals to be refused entry into or stay within the Schengen Area pursuant to Article

24 of the SIS II Regulation;

Missing persons (adults and minors) pursuant to Article 32 of the SIS II Decision;

Persons to assist with a judicial procedure pursuant to Article 34 of the SIS II Decision;

Persons for discreet or specific checks pursuant to Article 36 of the SIS II Decision.

At the end of 2019, SIS II contained a cumulative total of 983,124 alerts on persons. A breakdown of alerts on

persons is reflected in Graph 5.


Graph 5: Breakdown of the cumulative number of alerts on persons at the end of 2019

Source: eu-LISA.

The majority of alerts on persons were alerts pursuant to refusal of entry into or stay in the Schengen Area

(Article 24 of the SIS II Regulation) with over 54% of the total alerts on persons. Alerts on persons for discreet

and specific checks (Article 36 of the SIS II Decision) were the second largest category, comprising 17% of the

total alerts on persons.

Compared to 2018, the total number of alerts on persons increased by 5% in 2019. Furthermore, the respective

shares of all types of alerts on persons remained similar to 2018 (see Graph 6).

Graph 6: Breakdown of alerts on persons, comparison between 2019 and 2018

Source: eu-LISA.


3. Number of hits

As per the SIRENE Manual14 a hit occurs in SIS II when all of the following criteria are met:

a search is conducted by a user;

the search reveals a foreign alert (alert issued by a Member State other than the one undertaking the

search) in SIS II;

data concerning the alert in SIS II matches the search data;

further actions are requested as a result of the hit.

In 2019, a total of 283,713 hits on foreign alerts were reported via SIRENE Bureaux. A breakdown of the hits

per article is reflected in Graph 7.

Graph 7: Breakdown of hits on foreign alerts reported in 2019

Source: eu-LISA.

The majority of hits, 98,383 representing 34.7% of the total, were triggered by alerts on persons and objects for

discreet or specific checks (Article 36 of the SIS II Decision). The second largest share of hits were related to

alerts on person to assist with a judicial procedure (Article 34 of the SIS II Decision) with 20.5%, closely followed

by 19.3% share of hits on objects for seizure or use as evidence in criminal proceedings (Article 38 SIS II

Decision).

Compared to 2018, the number of hits on foreign alerts increased by 6% in 2019.

Graph 8: Breakdown of hits on foreign, comparison between 2019 and 2018

Source: eu-LISA.

14 OJ L231, 7.9.2017.


4. Trend: searches and hits

SIS II annual statistics are available since 201315. The increasing trend in searches and hits is depicted in Graph

9.

SIS II was searched on average, by competent authorities all over Europe, almost 6 million times per day in

2014. In 2017 the average number of daily searches more than doubled compared to 2014, reaching over 14

million daily queries. In 2019, there were over on average of 18 million searches per day. The average number

of hits per day processed by SIRENE Bureaux has increased from 427 hits in 2014, to 777 hits in 2019.

Graph 9: Average number of searches and hits per day between 2014 – 2019

Source: eu-LISA.

15 The 2013 report covers the period from the entry into operations of SIS II 9 April until 31 December.


Conclusion The statistical data collected for 2019 confirms that SIS II remains the largest information sharing system for

security and border management in the Member States, and its usage keeps steadily increasing.

In 2019, SIS II was searched more than 6.6 billion times by Member States. At the end of 2019, SIS II stored

more than 91 million alerts, and 283,713 hits were processed by the SIRENE Bureaux, representing an increase

of 6% compared to 2018. A total of 983,124 alerts on persons represents over 1% of the total number of alerts,

while triggering over three quarter of the total hits recorded.

A progressive upward trend in the system is observable since 2014, when annual statistics for the full year were

first published. Back in 2014, SIS II was searched on average almost 6 million times per day, whereas in 2019,

competent authorities all over Europe searched SIS II 18 million times on average per day. Important factors

that have increased the usage are new users, namely the UK since 2015 and Croatia since 2017, as well as new

use cases (e.g. the systematic checks).

The usage of SIS II in Member States differs as it depends on many factors, such as the definition of business

processes and workflows. In addition, Member States experience different demographic dynamics, crime levels

and geographical situations with impact on the number of border crossing points and length of external land

borders.

----------------------------


ISBN 978-92-95217-68-3 ISSN 2467-0766

doi:10.2857/78730

© European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, 2020

Documents

SIS II 2019 Statistics - eu-LISA II... · 2020. 3. 19. · on searches and hits reported by Member States connected to SIS II, on accesses for alert management and number of alerts